Beit known that I, JOHN R. PLANTEN, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of the city of Brooklyn and county of Kin gs,in the State of New York,have invented a new and useful Improvement in Capsules, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to gelatin capsules for hermetically inclosing liquid.' or volatile medicines and to those capsules of this kind which are furnished to consumers empty to be filled by the patient or attendant, and are known as empties or MT capsules. In order that such capsules shall retain their form when boxed for shipment and until they are used without being made unduly hard or rigid, it is desirable to confine the air Within each by hermetically sealing them at the fac tory, and the cost of the skilled labor for so preliminarily sealing cach single capsule is a considerable part of the expense of manufacture.

The present invention consists in adouble or multiple capsule for such use requiring to be sealed but once at the factory and serving after it is subdivided to separately inclose two or more doses in its individual parts.

A sheet of drawings accompanies this specification as part thereof.

Figure l of the drawings is a side view of an empty capsule, illustrating this invention. Fig. 2 represents a magnied longitudinal section on the line a b, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 represents like sections of two filled capsules formed from the respective parts of said multiple capsule; and Fig. 4 is a side view of another multiple capsule, illustrating certain modifications.

Like numbers refer to like parts in all the figures.

In either form the new capsule is of gelatin in one part. It consists of a plurality of intercommunicating empty sacs 1 and 2, adapted for use severally as capsules and connected with each other bya contracted hollow intermedium 3, and it is preliminarily sealed for the purpose of coniining the air at a single point, (shown at 4,) which is preferably and conveniently a point in line with said intermedium.

The multiple capsule, Figs. l and 2, comprises a plurality of substantially uniform sacs l and 2, connected with each other by a contracted hollow intermedium 3, through which the empty sacs communicate with each other, and are preliminarily sealed in line with said intermedium, as shown at 4.

The multiple capsule is readily molded with a single neck or opening at4 in the same manner as single capsules, the soft gelatin, when sufficiently dry for handling, stretching read.- ily to the'required extent to facilitate taking the multiple capsule from the mold. The surplus neck is then removed and the opening hermetically sealed with dissolved gelatin. Once closed the capsule remains airtight and never collapses.

When the multiple capsule is to be used, it is subdivided by cutting'through the intermedium 3, as indicated by the line c d, Fig. 2, after which each of the single parts can be iilled and then sealed at 5 with dissolved gelatin, as shown in Fig. 3.

The sacs or individual capsules may be of any required size and more or less globular in shape. Sacs of different sizes and shapes may be united in one and the same multiple capsule, as illustrated by Fig. 4, which shows a large oval sac atl and a small spherical sac at 2. The multiple capsule may include more than two sacs, if preferred, and other like modifications will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

Having thus described said improvement, I claim as my invention and desire to patent under this specificationl. A multiple empty gelatin capsule comprising a plurality of intercommunicating sacs, adapted to be severed one from another 'and to be used individually, and hermetically sealed at one point to prevent collapsing.

2. A multiple empty gelatin capsule comprising a pair of sacs connected with each other by a hollow intermedium, and divisible into individual capsules by cutting `through said intermedium.

3. A multiple empty gelatin capsule comprising a pair of intercommunicating sacs connected with each other by a hollow intermedium and hermetically sealed at .a point in line with said intermedium, substantially as hereinbefore specified.